Impulse noise consists of short powerful bursts that may adversely affect communication systems by disrupting communication signals exchanged is between the network devices of the system. The impulse noise bursts can either appear at random time intervals or at periodic time intervals. One particular type of impulse noise may be referred to as repetitive impulse noise (REIN).
In communication systems that communicate over a multi-carrier communication channel via symbols, impulse noise usually results in clusters of corrupted symbols. These clusters may be either consecutive symbols or randomly distributed symbols. In order to combat impulse noise and prevent corrupted symbols, the network devices of a communication system may utilize an impulse noise protection (INP) parameter. This INP parameter may dictate the extent to which the network devices need to adapt their transmissions to limit the effect of impulse noise on any communications.
However, existing solutions do not sufficiently address how to characterize impulse noise or determine this INP parameter. Therefore, improved methods and systems are needed.